Tag Archives: Nike

Welcome to the first ever Solution Session where I intend to show you the intuition behind some of my blog posts. This first episode is regarding my three posts about the secret behind Nike’s limited releases. Check out my YouTube Channel: Young Economics and be sure to subscribe! Let me know what you think.

With my question still percolating within my mind, I decided to look through Nike’s 2012 Annual Report for more information. Two years ago, Nike brought in over $13 billion in revenue from their footwear sector of the company, a 15% increase from 2011’s fiscal year end. In fact, over the past three years Nike has seen a steady increase in their revenue from the footwear department. According to the report, Nike credits this increase to a low single digit percentage increase in average selling price per pair of shoes; a double digit percentage growth in unit sales; an increase in demand for performance products, such as the Nike Free and Lunar technologies, which can be found in a lot of their running shoes; and an increase in sales of the Nike Running, Basketball, and Sportswear lines of the company. Raise your hand if you own a pair of Nikes…I thought so.

In economics there is this principle called elasticity where changing an economic variable, such as price, quantity or income, affects other variables on a scale from inelastic to elastic. I want to focus on inelastic goods, regarding footwear, because Nike’s annual report indicates inelasticity of demand. With inelastic goods price and revenue move in the same direction, which means if the price of the good increases so will total revenue, and vice versa. In Nike’s report, they stated that they saw an increase in revenue for footwear because of a low single digit percentage increase in average selling price. This suggests that Nike knew their product and consumers (the sneakerheads) well enough to understand that their footwear is inelastic and that a slight spike in prices would not hurt revenue. As forecasted, Nike yielded increased sales, which is exactly why they later revealed a double-digit percentage growth in unit sales for the year.

Furthermore, Nike also claimed that there was a revenue increase in footwear due to a spike in demand for their new running technologies and specific shoe lines within the company. What type of shoes do you see released in limited quantities? Well, its certainly not Nike’s football or soccer cleats, no, that would be impractical! Instead, we see limited pairs of shoes from the Nike Running, Nike Basketball, and Nike Sportswear lines, which also utilize Nike’s latest footwear technologies (Nike FREE and Nike Lunar). This is because these are the styles that are popular beyond the sports world. Kids and young adults are wearing these products for everyday use; no longer are the days where sneakers are solely used for athletic purposes, it’s a fashion statement to rock Nike’s Flyknit Trainers (my personal favorite) to school or on errands. Nike has taken note and exploited these trends in their releases, which is why they’ve seen augmented revenue margins. Making sense a little bit?

My collection of Nike Flyknits

At the end of the day though, I think Nike, and other sportswear companies, utilize this limited release tool for reasons that go beyond economic or financial principles. Since Nike doesn’t produce at an efficient level where marginal cost equals marginal benefit, there must be some outlying factor that reaffirms this action. I believe it is marketing. Nike remains a part of our cultural fabric because of their ability to stay relevant, creating a buzz and reputation around their brand. With their athletes (e.g. Michael Jordan, Lebron James, and Serena Williams), commercials, and slogans people are consistently talking about Nike and their iconic status. Limited releases are Nike’s newest tool to combat the ever-wandering mouths of public consumption. The people who are able to buy the limited edition shoes feel special because of the rarity of their purchase and the little company they share. Those who are unable to purchase the shoes, on the other hand, either obsess over upcoming Nike releases or end up buying another sneaker with their allocated money that was originally designated for those special kicks. It’s a win-win situation for Nike, as they not only increase their revenue stream, but the buzz around the company is perpetuated by those obsessive followers of The Swoosh who just want to feel unique too!

You saw in the video (found in Part I) what kind of shoe collecting people are doing nowadays, now multiply that by the millions of teenagers and adults who are also trying to create their own sneaker collection…pure genius by the gentleman behind The Swoosh.

This completes the Nike chapter of Young Economics. Thank you for taking the time to read my material. Be sure to check out all three parts and let me know what you think!

As I mentioned in my Introduction post, one of my interests revolves around global sportswear icon, Nike Inc. Ever since I can remember, I’ve been enamored with The Swoosh. The passion and ingenious behind each of their creations is something to marvel, for they continue to innovate and reimagine the way we think about apparel. Also, the entrepreneurial ability and spirit of co-founders Phil Knight and Bill Bowerman to start a company out of the trunks of their cars to only transform it into a multibillion-dollar entity is admirable and something every kid dreams about doing. Recently though, I’ve become more in tune with this interest and curiosity. Not to say that I am a ‘sneakerhead’ (someone who has an insatiable desire to collect sneakers), but I have begun collecting several pairs of Nike footwear…currently five kicks (sneakers) deep. If you aren’t familiar with Nike and this phenomenon of shoe collecting, I ask that you please check out this video of one of the most absurd sneaker closets you’ll ever see:

Limited release sneakers are what fuel this sneakerhead phenomenon. You see, on just about every Saturday morning people of all ages wake up just a couple of minutes before eight O’clock with their momma’s credit card in hand or money from their latest paycheck to hit that Twitter link Nike supplies saying, “The Air Jordan 11 Retro ‘Gamma’ is now available”, so that they may have a chance at “copping” (buying) the latest Nike shoes to hit the virtual shelves. The fact that these releases are limited alludes to the fact that many people end up empty handed after the shoe sells out in 10 minutes, only to try again, and probably fail, the following weekend. What I don’t understand though, is the purpose it serves to continually release limited edition sneakers when Nike could easily supply more and accommodate the demand of each shoe. Over the next couple of days I will be publishing my findings, stay tuned for part II to be released tomorrow.